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ABRAHAM LINCOLN 



RELIGIOUS VIEWS 



OF 



Abraham Lincoln 



BY 



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PREFACE. 



The author feels that no apology is needed in giving 
out this booklet to tHe public. For several years, he has 
sought to lay under tribute everything which might give 
light upon the subject herein discussed. Much could be 
said of the claims made by Spiritualists in insisting that 
Lincoln looked with favor upon their peculiar doctrine. 
Likewise, the Universalists have come in to announce that 
Mr. Lincoln threw out friendly glances at them. The 
author has sufficient material upon the religious glimpses of 
Lincoln to fill a five hundred page volume. Had the book 
been swelled to a full grown work, the price would have 
limited its sale and many would never read it because of its 
size. The author feels that confining the matter in these 
humble limits, will do more in enlightening people in regard 
to what Mr. Lincoln believed in spiritual things than in a 
more pretentious work. He has been compelled to waive 
the discussions and claims made by exponents of diflferent 
doctrines, and devote the entire work to the question 
whether Abraham Lincoln was a Christian or an Atheist. 
No thought of money- making has prompted the attempt to 
give out this work. The price has been placed at such a 
figure as to assure neither loss nor gain to the writer. 
Hoping that by placing our ear near the heart of our great 
martyr, we may be able to hear him sing his songs in the 
night. 

Rev. O. H. Pknnell. Author. 



Entered according to Act of Congres=, in the year of our Lord one 
thousand eight hundred and ninty nine, by 

ORRIN H. PENNFJ.L, 

In the oflice of the Librarian of Congress, at Washingtoc, D. C. 

Sold and transferred to The R. M. Scranton Ptg. Co., 1904. 



RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF ABRAHAM 
LINCOLN. 



Christianity needs cot the names of the great and power- 
ful ones of earth to make it respectable or worthy of accep- 
tation. From the four cjuarters of the earth the praises to 
our holy religion arise like the voices of many waters. From 
every clime and from every tongue, the name of our Lord 
is exalted. Nations and rulers bow before Jehovah's awful 
throne. A religion which has drawn to its altars the lights 
which have set the measure to the march of civilization, 
needs not to claim its devotees among those who are un- 
certain in their religious tone. 

While it adds nothing to the truth of our holy religion, 
if Abraham Lincoln received it as a little child receives gifts 
from its parents; neither does it subtract from its credibility, 
though he rejected it; yet it is with joy we read that in the 
time of trouble he besought God to "hide him in the secret 
of his tabernacle. " It has been one of the favorite customs 
of the free-thought world to fasten the badge of infidelity 
on all great men, had such ones ever expressed during their 
lifetime one word of douHt as to the authenticity of the 
Scripture or to the divinity of Christ. Not one ot the presi- 
dents from Washington down to Harrison, according to the 
liberal press, were orthodox Christian communicants. Wash- 
ington, Franklin, Chase, Beecher and a ho:it of others, 
whose names have adorned our political constellation, have 
been laid under tribute by the exponents of free thought. 

Was Abraham Lincoln a Christian man ? What were 
his views in regard to religion? How did he view the Bible? 
These are honest questions which should not be condemned, 
regardless of the source from which they spring. It does 
seem reasonable that after so many years elapsing ^ince his 
death, some well formulated statement might be given out 



6 REJtlGIOUS VIEWS OF 

in response to these questions. The study of Lincoln, to- 
day, amounts to little less than a mania. Magazines teem 
with articles dealing with some phase of his life. Of the 
writing of books there seems to be no end. His old Ken- 
tucky birthplace has become a Mecca to many admirers of 
the man. Springfield and Sagamon county have literally 
been laid under tribute. Old neighbors of Lincoln have 
been interviewed, courthouses have been ransacked which 
might bring out anything old or new concerning his earlier 
years. All persons ever privileged to have interviews with 
him, and there are not a few, are not slow in giving the sub- 
stance of the same to the world. Generals, senators, govern- 
ors, and in fact^ all who ever had audiences with him in re- 
gard to any matters, jealously retain such rare moments in 
everlasting remembrance. Even across the Atlantic his 
name seems to have gathered fragrance in its transit. Dr. 
Newman Hall, of London, one of the most eminent preach- 
ers in Great Britain, declares that the mentioning of the 
name of Lincoln to his great congregation has an electrify- 
ing effect. Yet, notwithstanding all that has been gleaned 
concerning this great man, the old question still comes ring- 
ing in our ears: "Was he a Christian?" It would be a 
falsehood to attempt to fix the name of Lincoln with any de- 
nomination. It would be a still greater folly to associate 
him with any formulated creed. 

No man's views among all Americans has caused so 
much discussion as those of Lincoln's. There are reasons 
for this: Mr. Lincoln never allied himself with any visible 
church. On the other hand, his life and utterances would 
stamp him as a believer of the most ultra kind. This appar- 
ent inconsistency is the foundation for all the discussion 
which has arisen of late years in regard to the views he en- 
tertained in matters of religion. 

STATEMENT OF THE INFIDEL PRESS. 

The "Truth Seeker" of New York, the most popular 
fiee- thought journal in America, and, perhaps enjoying the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 7 

largest circulation of any liberal paper published in our land, 
made the following statement recently: "In regard to a 
Supreme Being he entertained at times Agnostic and even 
Atheistic opinions. During the later years of his life, how- 
ever, he professed a sort of Deislic belief, but he did not ac- 
cept the Christian or aothropomorphic conception of a Deity. 

So far as the doctrine of immortality is concerned, he 
was an agnostic. 

He did not believe in the Christian doctrine of inspira- 
tion of the Scriptures. He balieved that Burns and Paine 
were as much inspired as David and Paul. 

He did not believe in the doctrine of Christ's divinity. 
He affirmed that Jesus was either the son of Joseph and 
Mary, or the illegitimate son of Mary. 

He did not believe in the doctrine of special creation. 

He believed in the theory of evolution, so far as this 
theory had been developed in his time. 

He did not believe in miracles and special providence. 
He believed all things are governed by immutable laws, and 
that miracles and special providences, in the evangelical 
sense of these terms, are impossible. 

He rejected the doctrine of total, or inherent depravity. 

He repudiated the doctrine of vicarious atonement." 

Accompanying the above statements, was a picture of 
Lincoln underneath the words, "Free thinkers of the past 
and present." 

Two books have found their way to the press, written 
obviously, to stem the current of the fast growing opinion 
that Lincoln was a Christian. One book was written by a 
Mr. John E. Rem.sburg of Atchison, Kansas. The other 
by Mr. Herndon, law partner of Lincoln's and an old time 
skeptic. The whole burden of Mr. Remsburg's book deals 
with the questions of his religion. In this volume he in- 
geniously and ably attempts to show that Lincoln was not a 
a Christian. He has brought into re(|uisition, every bit of 
evidence accessible. Christian and liberal testimony is given, 



8 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

and then with a wave of his hand he silences the Christian 
testimony by pronouncing it false. The other book, by 
Mr. Herndon, deals with the personal site of Lincoln. 
Mr. Herndon, however, did not forget his primary object in 
writing his volume. The latter part of the book is devoted 
to the task of removing the stain of Christianity thrown 
around Lincoln. 

Ingersol, in his eulogy on Mr. Lincoln, represents Lin- 
coln as hostile to the whole claim of Christianity. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 



LINCOLN FROM CHILDHOOD TO i860. 

Mrs. Lincoln the mother of the president, was a woman 
of the deepest religious feeling. Her character was 
the most exemplary, and she was affectionately devoted to 
her family. She had found time in the midst of her busy 
life to teach her son to read and write. Her deep devo- 
tional nature impressed inefHcably on Abraham the love of 
truth and justice, love and reverence for God which charac- 
terized his entire life. "These virtues were even associated 
in his mind with the most tender love and respect for his 
mother." Later in life when the delicate form of his 
mother remained but as a sweet memory, he said: "All 
that I am, or hope to be, I owe to my angel mother." 

He was not long permitted, however, to enjoy the de- 
votions of a mother. She died when her son was only nine 
years old. 

"My boast is not that I derive my birth 
From loins enthroned and rulers of the earth, 
But higher far my proud pretensions rise. 
The son of parents passed into the skies." 

Sad, indeed was the humble Indiana home in which the 
mother breathed her last ! The lad would go about his 
humble work mechanically, with his heart pierced. The 
burying ground in which she was laid to rest, was perhaps 
half a mile from the cabin. There, under a sycamore tree 
they dug the grave and laid away the mother of the presi- 
dent. The funeral services were in keeping with the sur- 
roundings, simple but solemn. At that time there was no 
minister to officiate. "Perhaps." says Arnold: "the first 
practical use the boy made of the acquisition of writing, was 
to write a letter to Rev. David Hlkin, a traveling preacher, 
whom the family had known in Kentucky, begging him to 
come over and perform religious services over the grave ol 



lO RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

his mother. The preacher came, but not until some months 
afterwards, traveling on horseback through the wild forests 
to reach their residence. There the family gathered with a 
few of their friends and neighbors, under the sycamore to 
hear from the lips of the minister an account of the mother's 
life and of the City Beyond." 

Mr. Raymond in his "Life and Public Services of 
Abraham Lincoln, " adds the following: "One of the very 
first efforts of his faltering pen was writing a letter to an old 
friend of his mother's, a traveling preacher, urging him to 
come and deliver a sermon over her grave. The invitation 
must have been couched in impressive, if not affecting lan- 
guage; for, although the letter was not written until nine 
months after his mother's remains had been deposited in 
their last resting place, Parson Elkins, the preacher to whom 
it was extended, responded to the request, and three months 
subsequently, just a year after her decease, preached a ser- 
mon commemorative of the virtues of one whom her neigh- 
bors still held in sacred and respectful remembrance. It is 
said that the parson in his discourse, alluded to the manner 
in which he had received the invitation. "His faith in 
Divine Providence began at his mother's knee, and ran 
through all the changes of his life. Not orthodox, not a 
man of creeds, he was a man of simple truth in God." 
(Arnold's Life of Lincoln. ) 

The boyhood of Lincoln was not characterized by any- 
thing supernatural. Says one of his biographers (Col. John 
Hay,) "We are making no claim of saintship for him. He 
was merely a good boy, with sufficient wickedness to prove 
his humanity." 

From his boyhood until he settled in Springfield, there 
is very little known of the religious tone of Lincoln which 
is reliable. One thing is certain, that while he resided in New 
Salem, he was thrown continually into the society of Free- 
Thinkers. One of these associates has risen up, and, in a 
reckless way, portrays Lincoln as a monster. He claims he 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. I I 

went to church only to scoff. That he would mock the 
preachers, and ridicule prayer. One of these men has gone 
so far that he even claims that Lincoln wrote a book against 
Christianity. Another claims it to have been only a tract; 
while still another believes it to have been an es.say. This 
supposed booklet is claimed to have attacked the whole sys- 
tem of Christianity. The work, however, was surpressed 
by his friends, they fearing that it would annihilate his 
popularity and future political prospects. It is gratifying 
to know that the author of these sweeping charges has been 
silenced in his traduction. Persons whose names were 
coupled in these assertions, have promply disclaimed any 
knowledge of the stains charged against Lincoln. The 
probability is that the whole matter is a sheer fabrication. 
Possibly, his faith faltered in those days. He read Volney, 
Paine, Hume, Gibbon, and other liberal books. His friends 
of the liberal faith have attempted to make much capital out 
of such reading. It proves nothing. Many a genuine 
orthodox minister has gone through all of these works with- 
out implicating himself. Again the enemies of Christianity 
claim that because of his logical mind it was impossible for 
him to reason by faith. This is too absurd. Let them for- 
get not that Copernicus, Kepler, and Newton were earnest 
Christians who saw the handwriting of God in the works of 
nature ! 

In Miss Ida M, Tarbell's "Life of Lincoln," the follow- 
ing appears: "There was no institution in Springfield in 
which Lincoln had not taken an active interest during the first 
year of his residence, and now that he had decided to remain 
in the town, he resumed all his old relations, from the daily 
visits to the drug stores on the public square, which were 
the recognized rendezvous of Springfield politicians and 
lawyers, to his weekly attendance at the First Presbyterian 
Church. That he was as regular in his attendance on the 
latter as on the former, all his old neighbors testify," 

In 1 85 1, his father lay dying. He wrote a letter of 



12 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

consolation addressed to his halt brother, John Johnson. 
Lincoln writes: "I sincerely hope father may recover his 
health, but at all events, tell him to remember to call upon 
and confide ia our great and good and merciful Maker, who 
will not turn away Irom him in any extremity. He notes 
the fall ot a sparrow, and numbers the hairs of our heads, and 
He will not forget the dying man who puts his trust in 
Him." 

Of the genuineness of this letter, there has never been 
any question. In another part of this same letter he adds: 
'Say to him if it be his lot to go now, he will soon have a 
joyous meeting with loved ones gone before, and where the 
rest of us. through the help of God. hope ere long to ioin 
him." 

There are several remarkable statements in this epistle. 
He fully acknowledges the eacacy of prayer. He partially 
quotes one of the most endearing expressions of our Savior 
and applies it to the iather's state He believes in. yea he 
longs for an immortality. 

While residing in Springfield, he oftentimes was called 
upon to deliver temperance addresses. More thaa^nce. he 
addressed Sunday School and Bible Society Conventions. 
In every good work, he was conspicuous. The Bible was 
consulted and quoted as freely as Blackstone. After 1845, 
he very seldom made a speech without alluding to the Scrip- 
ture. 

Events from 1S50 to 1S60 traveled fast. The repeal of 
the Missouri Compromise, the outrages in Kansas, the Dred 
Scott Decision, and John Brown" s raid, had raised the 
country to a high pitch of excitement. In the succession 
of these events came the Chicago Convention which nomi- 
nated Abraham Lincoln for President. There were already 
rumors of secession in the air. President Buchanan had 
allowed the conspirators of the nation to sit in the cabinet 
and carry out their treasonable designs. All felt that some 
crisis was imminent. The Democratic party by the division 
of its power, was overthrown in the presidential election. 



ABRAHAM MNCOLN. 13 



THE FAMOUS BATKMAN INTERVIEW. 

During the excitiug time from Lincoln's nomination 
until his inauguration, he was given rooms in the state 
house in which he received delegations of friends who came 
to pay him their respects. Hon. Newton Bateman was 
Superintendent of Public Instruction at the time, and oc- 
cupied rooms in the same building. These men became 
very intimate. (Hten. when crowds of people had dispersed 
for the night, Mr, Bateman would slip into Lincoln's room, 
and there they would spend an hour discussing the politi- 
cal movements which were stirring the land. According 
to Holland's "Life of Lincoln," the following conference 
took place: "On one of these occasions Mr. Lincoln took 
up a book containing a careful canvass of the city of Spring- 
field in which he lived, showing the candidate for whom 
each citizen had declared it his intention to vote in the 
approaching election. Calling Mr. Bateman to a seat at his 
side, having previously locked the doors, he said: 'Let us 
look over this book. I wish to see particularly how the 
ministers of Springfield are going to vote.' The leaves 
turned, one by one, and as the names were examined Mr- 
Lincoln frequently asked it this one and that were not a 
minister, or an elder, or the member ot such a church, and 
sadly expressed his surprise on receiving an affirmative 
answer. In that manner they went through the book, and 
then he closed it and sat silently and for some minutes 
regarding a memorandum in pencil which lay before him. 
At length he turned to Mr. Bateman with a face full of sad- 
ness and said: 'Here are twenty-three ministers, of differ- 
ent denominations, and all of them are against me but three; 
and here are a great many prominent members of the 
churches, a very large majority of whom are against me. 
Mr. Bateman, I am not a Christian — God knows I would be 



14 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

one but I have carefully read the Bible, and I do not under- 
stand this book,' and he drew from his bosom a pocket New 
Testament, 'these men well know,' he continued, 'th^t I am 
for freedom in the territories, freedom everywhere as far as 
the Constitution and laws will permit and that my oppo- 
nents are for slavery. They know this, and yet, with this 
book in their hands; in the light of which human bondage 
cannot live a moment, they are going to vote against m'e. 
I do not understand it at all.' Here Mr. Lincoln paused — 
paused for long minutes— his features surcharged with 
emotion. Then he rose and walked up and down the room 
in the effort to regain or to retain his self-possession. Stop- 
ping at last, he said with a trembling voice and his cheeks 
wet with tears, 'I know there is a God and that He hates 
injustice and slavery. I see the storm coming, and I know 
that His hand is in it. If He has a place for me, and I 
think He has, I believe I am ready. I am nothing, but 
truth is everything. I know I am right, for Christ teaches 
it, and Christ is God. ' 

The effect of this conversation upon the mind of Mr. 
Batemau, a Christian gentleman whom Mr. Lincoln pro- 
foundly respected, was to convince him that Mr. Lincoln 
had, in his quiet way, found a path to the Christian stand- 
point; that he had found God and rested on the eternal truth 
of God. As the two men were about to separate, Mr. Bate- 
mau remarked: 'I have not supposed that you were accus- 
tomed to think so much on this class of subjects. Cer- 
tainly your friends are ignorant of the sentiments you have 
expressed to me. ' He replied quickly: I know they are. 
I am obliged to appear different to them; but I think more 
upon these subjects than upon all others, and I have done 
so for years; and am willing that you should know it.' " 

For years, infidels have tried to get over this Bateman 
affair. Hon. Newton Bateman was well known throughout 
the state of Illinois. He was a man of sterling qualities. 
No one ever questioned his honesty or truthfulness, until 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 15 

this couversaliou was given out to the world. Some of the 
friends of free-thought have come out and boldly denied the 
whole story as a falsehood. Others have admitted that the 
interview took place and that Lincoln denounced the minis- 
IH^ and churches as above stated, accounting for the small 
vote Lincoln received in Springfield to his skeptical senti- 
ment which he was always expressing. Still other enemies 
of the church, seeing an opportunity of giving Christianity 
a thrust, received the conversation as a fact, thereby show- 
ing where ministers and churches stood on the slavery 
question. They deny the latter part of the interview, how- 
ever, explaining that Mr. Bateman was excited or agitated 
and over-represented the interview. Another scheme has 
been advanced to invalidate this story. The Bateman in- 
terview was first given out in Holland's "Life of Lincoln." 
One infidel writer affirms that Holland put his story of 
Bateman's in his book without consulting Bateman himself. 
That after the book was published Bateman was urged to 
put out a denial to the whole matter. This writer con- 
tinues to say that the only reason assigned by Bateman for 
not disavowing it was that, "my aversion to publicity in 
such matters is intense." In all of these attempts to de- 
stroy the story, the truth has become more self-evident. 



l5 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 



HIS LAST HOUR IN SPRINGFIELD. 

The morning he left his old home, a large number of 
his old neighbors accompanied him to the depot. As he 
stood upon the platform of the car he uttered the following 
words: "My friends, no one, not in my position, can real- 
ize the sadness I feel at this parting. To this people I 
owe all that I am. Here I have lived more than a quarter 
of a century. Here my children were born and here one of 
them lies buried. I know not how soon I shall see you 
again. I go to assume a task more difficult than that 
which has devolved upon any other man since the days of 
Washington. He never would have succeeded except for 
the aid of Divine Providence, upon which he at all times re- 
lied. I feel that I cannot succeed without the same Divine 
blessing which sustained him; and on the same Almighty 
Being I place my reliance for support. And I hope you, 
my friends, will all pray that I may receive the Divine 
assistance, without which I cannot succeed, but with which 
success is certain. Again I bid you an affectionate fare- 
well." 

This farewell speech, like the Bateman interview, has 
received a great deal of attention from those who would claim 
Lincoln an infidel. They would ha\e the world understand 
that these pathetic and pias words of Lincoln, were but the 
request that they should wish him well. Some newspapers, 
in commenting on these farewell words, call them "Old 
Abe's Latest Joke." They were words which came from a 
soul bowed down with the thought of a burden so soon to 
be laid upon him. His old neighbors understood them as 
words coming from a heart acquainted with grief. When 
a little more than four years later, his body was borne into 



ABRAHAM IJNCOLN. I7 

the State house, the following couplet, in allusion to his de 
parture was placed over its door: 

"He left us borne up by our prayers, 
He returns embalmed in our tears." 

Rev. Dr. Birch who was a witness to his departure- 
adds the following: "As I stretch my vision across the 
thirty- four years which have rolled away since the rainy 
morning of February iith, iS6r, I count that brief experi- 
ence one of the great privileges of my life. The lapse of 
time only deepens the impression of the long, gaunt form 
with its thoughtful face, as in the true simplicity of his real 
greatness, Abraham Lincoln lingers on the rear platform of 
the car to take his last look at the old home and to say his 
last words to his townsmen. 

President McKinley states that the night before the 
good president left Springfield, to start on his way to Wash- 
ington, a friend from Chicago sent him a flag of our coun- 
try, bearing these words, taken from the first chapter of 
Joshua, and written upon its silken folds: "Have I not 
commanded thee; be strong and of good courage; be not 
afraid, neither be thou dismayed, for the Lord, thy God is 
with thee whithersoever thou goest. There shall not any 
man be able to stand before thee all the days of thy life. As 
I was with Moses, so shalt I be with thee. 

The Psalmist says, "Thy statutes have been my song in 
the house of m)' pilgrimage." Ashe journeyed across the 
country to the seat of the government, all along hiscircuitous 
route, he failed not to declare to the people that he was go- 
ing forth in the name'of the Living God of Israel. Truly 
God's statutes became the song of his pilgrimage. 

At Columbus he said: "I turn then to God for support 
who has never forsaken the people." A reliance on God. 
At Steubenville: "Nothing shall be wanting on my part, if 
sustained by the American people and God." At Buffalo: 
"I must trust in that.Sepreme Being who has never forsak- 
en this favored land." At Albany: "I still have confidence 



1 8 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

that the Almighty, the Maker of the universe, will bring us 
through this." At New York City: "Aided by the wisdom 
of Almighty God." At Newark: "I am sure, however, that 
I have not the ability to do anything unaided by^God." At 
Trenton: "I shall be most happy, indeed, if I shall be an 
humble instrument in the hands of the Almighty, and of this 
most chosen people, as the chosen instrument, also in the 
hands of the Almighty of perpetuating the object of that 
great struggle.'" At Philadelphia: I have said nothing but 
that I am willing to live by, and if it be the pleasure of Al- 
mighty God, die by. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 19 



LINCOLN AND PROVIDENCl':. 

Perhaps, there never was a ruler who felt ami believed 
ia the intervention of God in human afTairs to such an ex- 
tent as Abraham Lincoln. There might be given a good 
sized volume of matter, showing his belief in special 
Providence. 

When a young man, Lincoln made his second trip 
down to New Orleans with a cargo of produce. After hav- 
ing disposed of the cargo, he and one of his fellow boatmen 
sauntered through one of the great slave marls. Here were 
gathered planters from all parts of the South West Black 
men and women were arranged in rows for sale. The 
auctioneer would show their good qualities by inviting his 
purchasers to examine them as you would so many horses 
or mules. Should any of the slaves happen to be Christians, 
and the fact known to the crier, he would boldly proclaim 
it hoping thereby to get a higher figure. Again and again 
the hammer fell. Husbands separated from wives, parents 
from children, brothers from sisters. Lincoln and his friend 
witnessed the.se doings. His lipsquivered, and his voice chok- 
ed in his throat as he turned to his companion and said, ''If 
ever I get a chance to hit that thing, I will it hard, by the 
Eternal God. 

Dr. David Gregg in commenting over that New Or- 
leans scene makes the following comment: "Who is he to 
hit the "thing" a blow? He is only a boatman, a splitter 
of rails, a teamster, a backwoodsman, nothing more. His 
poverty is so deep that his clothes are in tatters. What po- 
sition of influence or power is he likely to attain to enable 
him to strike a blow? The "thing" which he would like to 
hit is incorporated into the frame-work of society, and legal- 
ized in half the states composing the Republic. It is in- 
trenched in church and state alike. It is a political force, 



20 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

recognized in the Constitution. It enters into the basis of 
representation. Is there the remotest probability that he 
ever will be able to smite such an institution? Why utter 
these words? Why raise the right hand to heaven and 
swear the solemn oath? Was it some dim vision of what 
might come to him through Divine Providence in the un- 
folding years? Was it an illumination of the Spirit forecast- 
ing for the moment the impending conflict between right 
and wrong in which he was to take a conspicuous part ? 
Was it a whisper by a divine messenger that he was to be 
the chosen one to wipe the "thing" from the earth, and 
give deliverance to millions of his fellow men ? Was it not 
rather the mind and heart and power of God planted deep 
in the depth of his very being and abiding there with an 
holy impatience waiting for the clock of destiny to strike?" 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 21 



HEARING REV. PKTER AKHRS PREACH. 

Dr. Akers was one of the most eminent preachers in the 
Methodist Episcopal Church, during the days when slavery 
was the great bone of contention. He unsparingly de- 
nounced slavery as a sin, and a sin which would receive a 
merited punishment from God in his own good time. In 
1837, Lincoln, with a company of friends, visited a camp- 
meeting a few miles out of Springfield, 6^ which occasion 
Dr. Akers preached. On this occasion the'preacher painted 
the wickedness of slavery in all its cruel form. He pre- 
dicted a great war which would follow this blighting curse. 
That slavery would receive its death through the struggle. 
He also pictured how the nation would receive a new bap- 
tism of freedom when the sin was no more. 

On returning from this service the preacher's sermon 
was the only subject of discussion. Lincoln remarked, "It 
was the most instructive sermon and he is the most impress- 
ive preacher I have ever heard. It is woiiderful that God 
has given such power to men. I firmly believe his interpre- 
tation of prophecy, so far as I understand it, and especially 
about the breaking down of civil and religious tyrannies, 
and odd as it may seem, when he described those changes 
and revolutions, I was deeply impressed that I should be 
somewhat strangely mixed up with them.*' 

In 1849 he wrote to his friend, Joshua Speed, concern- 
ing his own social troubles: "Whatever He designs, He 
will do for me. 'Standstill and see the sanation of the 
Lord, is my text now." 

In the North American Review of 1896, the following 
from the pen of Ex-Senator James F. Wilson, illustrates the 
feeling of the president during the dirk days of the war. 
Mr. Wilson with several other gentlemen, had called upon 



>»> 



22 REUGIOUS VIEWS OF 

the president eliciting information as to the condition ol 
the army and its movements. After each of the callers had 
given his views concerning slavery and the advisability of 
an immediate proclamation, he responded as follows: "My 
faith is greater than yours. I not only believe that Provi- 
dence is not unmindful of the struggle in which this nation 
is engaged, that if we do not do right God will let us go our 
own way to our ruin; and that if we do right. He will lead us 
safely out of this wilderness, crown our arras with victory, 
and restore our dissevered union, as you have expressed 
your belief; but I also believe He will compel us to do right 
in order that He may do these things, not so much because 
we desire them as that they accord with His plans of deal- 
ing with this nation, in the midst of which He means to 
establish Justice. I think that He means that we shall do 
more than we have yet done in the furtherance of His plans 
and He will open the way for our doing it. I have felt His 
hand upon me in great trials and submitted to His guid- 
ance, and I trust that as He shall further open the way, I 
will be ready to walk therein, relying on His help and trust- 
ing in His goodness and wisdom." 

It can readily be seen that every time Mr. Lincoln 
expressed himself in regard to the dispensation of Provi- 
dence, he, on each occasion, breathes out a strong faith in 
the Almighty. As the war progressed he more clearly saw 
the mysterious movements of God. At last he saw himself 
as we now see him. an instrument in the hands of God. 

Alter the Emancipation Proclamation was given to the 
world, colored people, wherever the grand message went, 
nearly went wild with delight. On the plantations their 
weeping was turned into joy; in churches, where they were 
wont to assemble for worship, their souls mounted high 
in Thanksgiving to God for their emancipator. Colonel 
McKay who was a member of a committee to investi- 
gate the conditions of the colored people, after having 
reported his investigation to the president, related to him 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 23 

how the lately, freed slaves looked upon him as their libera- 
tor. Mr. Lincoln replied, "It is a momentous thing to be 
the instrument, under Providence, of the liberation of a 
race." 

Those were eloquent days when one man held the key 
which would bid a whole race rejoice. Long had prophets 
of freedom foretold that happy day. For years all over the 
north the friends of the lowly had cried themselves to sleep 
with the burning thought that part of the people were in 
chains. The friends of the oppressed had been killed, 
incarcerated and insulted by the slave oligarchy. They, 
too, were more defiant each year. Nothing would satisfy 
them until their bloodhounds could lacerate their victims 
under the shadow of Bunker Hill. Now it looked as 
though human slavery had fed on its last victim. The 
veteran abolitionist saw his day and was glad. Already the 
president had hinted that the Constitution granted him the 
power to remove slavery as a military measure. He still 
waited ! Congress was not unmindful of the great moment. 
The friends of human slavery were bringing to bear their 
best efforts to stay the hand of the emancipator. It was too 
late I He spoke and it was done. As the paper was 
brought to him by the secretary of the State to be signed, 
he said, "Mr. Seward, I have been shaking hands all day 
and my right hand is almost paralized. If my name ever 
gets into history it will be for this act, and my whole soul 
is in it. If my hand trembles when I sign the proclama- 
tion, those who examine the document hereafter will say he 
hesitated." Then taking up his pen, having rested his arm 
for a moment, slowly and firmly wrote "Abraham Lincoln." 
He smiled, as handing the paper to Mr. Seward, he said, 
"That will do." Then was fulfilled the saying of him who 
had exclaimed thirty and five years before: "If I ever get 
a chance to hit the accursed thing, I will hit it hard, by the 
Eternal God.' ' 

The hopes, prayers, and rejoicing of these millions of 



'1 i<iU,i(;ioi;s viKws oy 

huwltuii I.,. III. I . xpn-.siMH in H„- followinjj words of 
Wliillifi. 

"VVc I lay (Ir I/,r.|, H.. >.,|, „s sj^^nH 
Dill H«»me (I ly we be free; 
I).- Norl wiiKl Irll it Ui dc pjne, 
I »!• wilil (IiK k Id (If HCii. 

Wr (ink it wln-ii <lc church hell riiij/, 

Wc ihiMiiii it ill (h- (Irraiii ; 
I "r rice liir.l iiii-.iii i(;when hesiiif^. 

I >(• c.if^lc when he scream. 

I>c Mim will urow, dc cottou blow, 

We'll bah lie rice and corn; 
Oh iieberyou fear if nehcr you hear 

!>.■ drivi'r blow his liDrii. 

SiiiR on, poor heart ' your chant shall be 

Our sign of blight or bloom— 
The xala-sonji; of liberty 

Or dealh-rune of our doom." 

Mr. Lincoln was charged dtiring the war as being too 
amhilious. His antagonists in the north even dared 
whisper, "dictator," "usurper," "Cromwell." Some saw 
in this kind and gentle spirit, only a tyrant. He was, in- 
deed, clothed in vast power. No president was ever so 
nuioh trusted by Congress as was Lincoln. As David said 
ot his God, "I will sing aloud of thy mercy," even so can 
the world sing of the beloved Lincoln. It is true that on a 
question involving right and wrong he would not be moved. 
He would reach over into the national legislature and make 
his intUience felt in that body. More than once he moved 
out on certain political lines against the advice of his cabi- 
net. He had reached that place in his great career that he 
could say with Paul, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly 
vision." He was no: a fatalist. Only interpreting the 
mind of God and acting accordingly without fear or favor. 
Time h.as vindicated his actions. If ever he erred, it was 
on the side of mercv. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 25 

Says the gifted Henry Watterson in a most beantifnl, 
tmthiiil and eloquent tribnte to the great emandpator: 
"Bora as knHy as the Son of God, reared in penury and 
squalor, with no gleam of light nor fair surroundings, it 
was reserved for this strange being, late in life, without 
feme or name or seeming preparation, to be snatched from 
obscurity, raised to a supreme command at a supreme mo- 
ment, and intrusted with the destiny of a nation. \^ere 
did Shakespeare get his genius ? Wnere did Mozirt get his 
music ? Whose hand smote the lyre of the Scottish plow- 
man and staid the life of the German priest? God alone, 
and as surely as these were raised by God, inspired of God 
was Abraham Lincoln. A thousand years hence, no story, 
no tragedy, no epic poem will be filled with greater wondCT 
than that which tells of his life and death. If Lincoln was 
not inspired of God then there is nothing on earth as special 
providence or the interposition of divine power in the af- 
feiisof men."' 



26 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 



WHEN DID LINCOLN BECOME A CHRISTIAN? 

Infidels think Ihey have forever silenced the claims 
that Lincoln was a Christian, on the grounds that the 
defenders of the faith disagree among themselves as to the 
time when he is supposed to have embraced religion. One 
Free Thinker on commaating on the statement of Dr. Bar- 
rows, concerning the date of his (Mr. Lincoln's) conversion, 
•cynically adds, "This is the fifth time LincDln gave his heart 
to God." 

These different testimonies offered by Christians from 
the four quarters of our land, conflicting as to the time 
alleged when Lincoln became a Christian, need not cause 
anyone to falter. Let it be remembered that the Christian 
world has not yet arrived at a unanimous conclusion as to 
what conversion is. Farrar says, "A conversion may be 
said to be that change in the thoughts, desires, disposition 
and life of a sinner which is brought about when the Holy 
Ghost enters the heart as the result of the exercise of a sav- 
ing faith in the atonement, by which the sinner is justified." 

This is the view held by one man only. There are 
multitudes of people, rich in scholarship and Christian 
experience as Farrar, who view the whole subject in an 
entirely different light. Visible and distinct bodies of com- 
municants hold their indentity upon their respective views 
of the nature of conversion. If he ever became a Christian 
it was entirely a matter of the heart- He was never bap- 
tized nor received into any visible church. It w^s a matter 
of Christian experience then, or nothing. We will study 
his own language, hear his own confessions and mark his 
life to ascertain whether he possessed the spirit of Christ. 

Frank Carpenter who knew Lincoln perhaps as inti- 
niately as any one outside of his own family, expresses the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 2^ 

following: "Mr. Lincoln, referring to what he called a 
change of heart, said he did not remember any precise time 
when he passed through any special change of purpose, or 
of heart; but he would say that his own election to office, 
and the crisis immediately following, influentially deter- 
mined him in what he called 'a process of chrystalli/.ation, 
then going on in hi^ mind.' " Carpenter recites another 
incident which adds to the testimony already given. "A 
lady in the service of the Christian Commission had occa- 
sion in the prosecution of her duties, to have several inter- 
views with the president. Naturally their conversation 
would turn towards the subject of religion. They talked 
of Christian experience and matters of a kindred nature. 
Being invited by the president to give her views as to what 
constituted a religious experience, she readily consented. 
After she had clearly set forth her views. Mr. Lincoln 
responded as follows: 'If what you have told me is really 
a correct view of this subject, I^think I can say with sincer- 
ity, that I hope I am a Christian. I had lived until my 
boy Willie died without fully realizing these things. That 
blow overwhelmed me. It showed me my weakness as I 
had never felt it before, and if I can take what you have 
stated as a test, I think that I can safely say that I know 
something of that change of which you speak. I will 
farther add, that it has been my intention for some time, at 
a suitable opportunity, to make a pub'.ic religious profes- 
sion ' ■ ' 

Dr. James Smith, pastor of the First Presbyterian 
Church at Springfield, in the days of Lincoln's residence 
there, gives the following testimony: 'It is a very easy 
matter to prove that while I was pastor of the First Presby- 
terian Church of Springfield, Mr. Lincoln did avow his 
belief in the Divine authority and inspiration of the scrip- 
tures; and I hold that it is a matter of the last importance 
not only at' 'the present, but all future generations of the 
great Republic, and to all advocates of civil and religious 



28 REUGIOUS VIEWS OF 

liberty throughout the world, that this avowal on his part^ 
and the circumstances attending it, together with very- 
interesting" incidents illustrative of the excellence of his 
character, in my possession should be made known to the 
public." This Christian gentleman then adds how beset 
before Mr. Lincoln arguments advanced by the infidel world 
and along side of it he placed arguments calculated to show 
the authenticity ot the Scriptures. Mr. Lincoln, after care- 
ful examination of the proofs, for and against Christianity, 
pronounced the argument in favor of divine authority and 
inspiration of the Scriptures unanswerable. This testimony 
of Mr. Smith's has been confirmed by words of attestation 
from Hon. Xinian Edwards, brother-in law of the president, 
and also from people still living who were formerly mem- 
bers of Dr. Smith's church. 

Mr. Noah Brooks, newspaper correspondent and a 
bosom friend of Lincoln while he was president, gives us 
many pen pictures of the personal side of Lincoln's life. 
He gives us the following glimpses of the man. "I never 
tried to draw anything like a statement of his views from 
him, yet he freely expressed himself tome as having 'a hope 
of blessed immortality through Jesus Christ.' " Again he 
comments upon Lincoln: ''Once or twice, speaking to me 
of the change which had come upon him, he said that while 
he could not fix any definite time, yet it was after he came 
here, and I am very positive that in his own mind he identi- 
fied it about the time of Willie's death. In many conver- 
sations with him, I absorbed the firm conviction that Mr. 
Lincoln was at heart a Christian man, believed in the Savior^ 
and was seriously considering the step which would formally 
connect him with the visible church on earth." Once he 
said in commenting on the church and its doings, "When 
any church will inscribe over its altars as its sole qualifica- 
tion for membership the Savior's condensed statement of the 
substance of both law and gospel, 'Thou shalt love the Lord 
thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 29 

thy mind and thy neighbor as thyself,' that church will 1 join 
with all my heart and soul.' " 

If Mr. Lincoln himself cannot give any set date when 
he accepted Christ, yet conscious of "peace in believing." 
how absurd it would be for others to attempt co fix that 
moment! 



30 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 



LINCOLN AND PRAYER. 

Prayer is the burden of a sigh, 

The falling of a tear, 
The upward glancing of an eye, 

When none but God is near. 

Prayer is the Christian's vital breath. 

The Christian's native air, 
His watchword at the gates of death; 

He enters Heaven with prayer. 

One of the most conclusive evidences showing the sin- 
cerity of purpose of Saul of Tarsus, was that ''Behold he 
prayeth." If praying to Jehovah stamps a man a believer, 
surely Abraham Lincoln can be numbered among God's 
anointed. He made supplications to God in secret as well as 
in public. He announced it in official papers, as well as to 
individuals. Free Thinkers, unable to deny the fact of his 
supplication, come boldly forward and inform us that Lin- 
coln's praying must not be confused with orthodox prayers. 
Mr. Herndon, the old law partner of Lincoln, and a notorious 
exponent of infidelity attempts to analyze Lincoln's prayers. 
He employs the following vvordii to show forth prayer: * ' Did 
Mr. Lincoln believe in prayer as a means of moving God?'' 
Mr. Herndon, referring to Lincoln's last farewell address at 
Springfield, when he asked his townsmen to pray for him, 
comments as follows: "These expressions are merely con- 
ventional. They do not prove that Mr. Lincoln believed 
that prayer is a means of moving God. He believed, as I 
undeistood him, that human prayer did the prayer good; 
that prayer was but a drum beat — the taps of the spirit on 
the living, human soul, arousing it to acts of repentance for 
bad deeds done, or inspiring it to a loftier and higher effort 
for a nobler and grander life.' ' Of all the definitions given 
to prayer this is certainly the most novel yet known. The 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 31 

man who offers this exposition on prayer is the same gentle- 
man who refused to believe in Lincoln's conversation in 
Washington on the score that, "If Mr. Lincoln changed his 
religious views he owed it me to warn me." In other words 
he feels that Lincoln would certainly have informed him had 
he ever been converted. While it might be comforting to 
the hearts of some prophets and followers of Paine to hang 
unto these words of Herndon in an almost idolatrous way 
receiving them as the last words and will of Abraham Lin- 
coln, to hear the great man speak for himself is far more 
gratifying. On one occassion a friend was talking to him 
about the burden of government which was pressing him 
toward the grave. He was reminded by his friend that 
millions of people were praying, not to bs heard of men, 
in his behalf He caught the words ''not to bs heard of 
men." "Yes" says Lincoln, "I like that phrase, 'not to be 
heard of men,' and guess it is generally true as you say; at 
least I have been told so and I have been a great deal 
helped by just that thought." 

The interview which Gen. James F. Rusliog had with 
Lincoln immediately after the battle of Gettysburg, is suffi- 
ciently conclusive to sweep away the last vestige of infi- 
delity urged against the man. 

The story has been given to the public of late years. 
It is not so late, however, to be considered apocryphal. 
General Sickles, who is still living, fully confirms the story. 
It is of such paramount importance that the entire interview 
will be given. 

Says General Rusling, "The next time I saw Mr. Lin- 
coln was on July 5, 1863 — the Sunday after the battle of 
Gettysburg. He had come down from the Soldiers' Home 
with his little son, VTad," to call on General Daniel E. 
Sickles, of New York, who had arrived in Washington that 
morning, having lost a leg at Gettysburg. I also had 
called to see Sickles (my corps cDmmander then), and was 
there still when Lincoln was announced. Thev .shook hands 



32 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

cordially, if not pathetically, and after many inquiries about 
the killed and wounded and how the latter were faring, Mr. 
Lincoln passed next to the fact of our victory at Gettys- 
burg, and what Meade proposed to do with it. Sickles, of 
course, answered him warily, as became so astute a man 
and soldier, and got his side of the story of Gettysburg well 
into the President's mind and heart and presently inquired 
whether he and the cabinet had not been a little anxious 
about affairs there ? Mr. Lincoln replied that the cabinet 
had but he had not, and then went on to make candid con- 
fession that in the very pinch and stress of the Gettysburg 
campaign he had gone to the Almighty in secret prayer. 
He said he told the Lord this was His country, and the war 
was His war, but that we could not stand another Freder- 
icksburg or Chancellorsville, and that he then and there 
made a solemn vow with his Maker that if He would stand 
by us at Gettysburg he would stand by Him, and then he 
added, 'And he did, and I will !' He said after thus pray- 
ing, he didn't know how it was, but someHow a sweet com- 
fort crept into his soul that God Almighty had taken the 
whole business there into His hands, and we were bound to 
win at Gettysburg. 

Afterward, in the same interview, he added that he 
had also been praying over Vicksburg, because we needed 
it so badly in order to bisect the Confederacy and save Miss- 
issippi to the Union, and he somehow had faith that Grant 
was going to win down there too. He said he didn't want 
it repeated then; some might laugh; buc it was a solemn 
fact that he prayed mightily over both Gettysburg and 
Vicksburg, and verily belie\'ed our heav^enly Father was 
somehow going to take care of the American republic. Of 
course Mr. Lincoln did not know that Vicksburg had al- 
ready fallen and that a Union gunboat was then on its way 
up the Mississippi to Cairo with the glorious news that was 
soon to thrill the country through and through. 

Gettysburg and Vicksburg ! — our great twin victories ! 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 33 

What were they not to US in that fateful summer of 1863 ? 
And what would have happened to the American Republic 
had both gone the other way. Of course it will not do to 
say that Abraham Lincoln's faith and prayers saved us 
there; but they certainly did not do the Union any harm. 
^ And his serene confidence in victory there because of these 
(or resulting therefrom >, was something beautiful to behold 
on that memorable July 5, 1863. 

I never saw Mr. Lincoln again. In November, 1863, 
I was ordered west to Tennessee, and was there still in 1865, 
when he was assassinated. But this conversation made a deep 
impression and I need scarcely add, settled the question of 
his religious faith with me and General Sickles forever. 
Whatever Mr. Lincoln may have b;ea in earlier years and 
under narrower conditions, it is certain that our great war 
as it proceeded, iavolving a whole continent with world- 
wide and timelong results, sobered and steadied him and 
anchored him on God as the supreme Ruler of nations as a 
like experience sobered and anchored William of Orange 
and Cromwell and Washington, and in the end Abraham 
Lincoln became a ruler worthy to rank with even these. 
Of all the great figures of our Civil War, Lincoln alone 
looms up loftier and grander as the years roll on, and his 
place in the pantheon of history is secure forever." 



M 



MNCOI.N ANfJ Tin: VAiiLK 

"Til" rollifij{ mm, tli» chinKiof; Jigb*. 
Ati'l iiij^litB an'l riays, Thy power codfesf^; 
But the best volatile Thou hast writ. 

Reveal"? Thy juitice au'l Thy fjrace." 

At tlie bej^iiidiiiji dT this work, a statement was set forth 
showing jtist what the iiifrlel world creditefl to Lit^coln as 
beiiijj his views touching the salient features of a religioas 
belief. This is one of the assertions: "He did not believe 
in the LMirisliaii doctrine of the inspiration of the Holy 
Scriptures. He believed that liurns and Paine were as 
tntnh inspired as D.ivid and Paul." In another place the 
following statement is made which is yet bolder: "He wrote 
a book against the Bible." Purns. we never shall forget, 
was one of Lincoln's favorite authors. This great genius 
of Scotland, however, became enslaved by the rum power 
and bowctl himself down at its shrine. With all his great- 
ness of heart; with all his hatred of vice and hypocrisy, his 
last days were clouded by the sin of intemperance. 

Thomas Paine, the man, who for some time was a good 
patriot and for a still longer time, a writer against the Bible 
and whose last days were spent in attempting to villify the 
noble Washington, is placed alongside of Burns; and these 
two men are brought forward to receive the same credit for 
inspiration as David and Paul. 

It cannot be denied that Lincoln was familiar with the 
writings of all the above named authors. Did Lincoln really 
compare the two profane authors with the two sacred authors 
in regard to inspiration, or was it another reckless statement 
born in the mind of .some enemy of God's word? 

In the Lincoln Museum at Washington City there is an 
old copy of the Bible. It shows that it has been well studied. 



Itt earner are tSKse m& as ^e hi : ^c 3& 

A liacaea. insonrz bcoc 

Tais 3» IJae hook, taac jaceawsc -_- -^ . t •- - : 

of Free T3DC?r^ Iszvs tried li sxr>: i . . . . - 

Tbey aGe^ tiii fi^r^ri: zzt 3::.':e icc»=r . ^-y 

TSai exc/;ar;<:t3ai -^ztljC. ztt q;"rfti ssr^^rjctcrr jiaii 

see ifei^ S2s "^klzj.'jz. azfZ 'prrz'kT.t 

Meneiy ^ 'K»taa pr<«£a>ctaaB or ~ ' - 

worid bf lBi|Wiiilliiiiw. Efe tasr. 

divided sgasBSt :ti£ir ^^:::>dc ?r,fi3.2 ^ :x 

Dad ke u w y i uy tkx& exrc=:5<i>s bscaisjie :: ^-^trr-f-r -- f'^ 
tbt ocx x mm or becaase it «%£ rocmf -js tae - 
tkaft^ns txvidi? A^sim^ le ::: -mzizz:!^ Xz. - 

ics*^ ^ ^'^ inker's acicBess sa^s He r : .2 

apsmyv aad ssoMbers de ksxr^i oc oar se^d. lytO. se feijecr 
these woods ia tke preseacse ot r - r- fataer recaaae oe 

their li s e iaciy adapeatioa or beci acre v^ds ot csac - 

sofati oM diofkped ^roea tbe i:pe^ oc rbe S^vjor ' Abost i: rear 
beiore kK aiBaasaBBtiioa^ ia a CKxxr^rsstxa vtdi fik otAf thae 
fidtoid, Jodiva Speed, he nssBxrked, I &= pr^ts&ij ezgss^ 
ia IT wImj; the BibSe 7&xe ^ oe tk^ book vpao rgg^ou 
tk«l5««caa aad tke biuftace oa sank, ladjoa -wSkmvt.xmA 

The colored people o< 



36 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

their love for their emancipator, presented him with a beauti- 
ful copy of the Scriptures. After the presentation address 
was concluded he responded in the following language: "In 
regard to the Great Book I have only to say, that it is the 
best gift which God has given to man. All the good from 
the Savior of the world is communicated through this book. " 
If Lincolu believed the Bible to be an uninspired volume, 
why did he employ such extravagant words ? Did he do it 
to tickle their ears ? If he did he could be no less than a 
hypocrite. Now, if he lelt that the Scriptures were only a 
man-arranged scheme, it was his duty to tell these poor, 
deluded negroes that they were mistake q. A man who 
could write a fatherly letter to Hooker, telling him of his 
weakness; a man who had the fortitude to express his 
opinion to a Democratic delegation from Ohio in regard to 
Vdllandigham had certainly the moral strength to make 
known his views in regard to that Book ! No, those words 
of his on this occasion were the expression of his heart. 

His second inaugural address is perhaps the most quoted 
document ever given out by any American President. He 
there remarked, "Both read the same Bible." Why was 
this sentence thrown into his address ? One writer whose 
views are hostile to Christianity remarks as follows in regard 
to the expression quoted above: "What a commentary 
upon the hypocritical assumption that Christians possess an 
infallible moral standard, is contained in the above words.' ' 
This sage of free thought assumes that lyincolu had an old 
time grudge against the Bible and Christianity in general 
and thus takes the occasion on his second inaugural to air 
his views. Of all the comments on that last inaugural 
address, the words of this infidel expositor are the most 
ridiculous. 

Mr. x\rnold, commenting on this address ot the presi- 
dent, uses the following beautiful words: "Since the days 
of Christ's sermon on the mount, where is the speech of 
.emperor, king or ruler, which can compare with this? May 



ABRAHAM IJNCOI.N. 37 

we not, without irreverence, say that passages of this 
address are worthy of that holy Book, which daily lie read, 
and from which, during his long days of trial, he had drawn 
inspiration and guidance? Where else, but from the teach- 
ings of the Son of God, could he have drawn that Christian 
charity which pervades the last sentence in which he so 
unconsciously describes his moral nature: 'With malice 
toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right 
as God gives us to see the right.' Xo other state paper in 
American annals, not even Washington's farewell address, 
has made so deep an impression upon the people as this." 
He adds further: "This paper in its solemn recognition of 
the justice of Almighty God, reminds us of the words of the 
old Hebrew prophets." 

Chief Justice Chase administered the oath of office to 
the president. After this part of the ceremony was over 
Mr. Lincoln kissed the Bible which was open before him. 
His lips touched the 27th and 28th verses of the 5th chapter 
of Isaiah. The verses read thus: ''None .shall be weary, 
nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; 
neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the 
lachet of their .shoes be broken, whose arrows are sharp, 
and all their bows bent, their horses' hoofs shall be counted 
like flint, and their wheels like a whirlwind." 

All in all it was the most impre.ssive inaugural service 
ever witnessed. The day of the ceremony had been stormy 
until the hour of twelve. Then the sun came out from be- 
hind the darkness illuminating the large assembly who had 
gathered to witness the inaugural. This time, too, the 
Chief Justice who administered the oath of office had a heart 
that was right toward the Union. On the farmer occasion, 
four years before, that magistrate's heart was with the 
South. Four years before, he was an untried man from the 
prairies; on this occasion the nation, yea, the whole world 
looked upon him as one of the most remarkable men of the 
age. 



jB i Ei-iGio*/? Turvf oi 



Hlb KEL AT 1'j2\. TO THE SAIiBATE. 

"Hail lo the B^ 

The ttav dr. l., ^ -. i. ; 
IX'beii men to God tb«ir homai;? psx . 

And eartb draws near lo heaven. 

The Tetnpie as toe arci 

Of voE usmeasnred bi^ 
The '- '-he siupeod^us marrn 

Tbe Sabbatb is the citadel of Amtrrican institntions. It 
has Ijeen ab-saulied bj- forei^ and domestic foes. 

Anarchists, agrxostics saloon keepers, and imported 
religioui- doctrines, savoring strongly of eastern mixtnre. are 
found arrayed against tiiis bulwark of freedom. One expo- 
nent of if' • ' -■-' -■-'- ••Lincoln himself attached 
no more b. a toother days. He worked 

on Sunday himseiL In Spnngfield his Sundays were frc- 
<-'-•'■' " ' '-ing cases for court. In company 

V, passed the entire day making excur- 

sions into tl>e country or rambling through the woods that 
6/ " ' . He seldom went to church either 

«• raingtoa ' Kev. Dr. James Smith, 

already quoted, declares that be usually attended church 
with' ' "^ ."' ' ■■■ :s for a long time pastor 

of a -infield. He was highly 

respected l;y Mr, Lincoln who appointed him to a consul- 
ship ; 

i: Salybath profanation measure up with the 

following general order in regard to Sabl>ath observance in 
t!'.' " '.der was given Js'ov. i6th, tHGy. 

' - • r in Chi«-f of the Army and Navy, 

det>iret> an4 «fij'>ioft tb« orderly ol/)Krrvancc of th<- Sabbath 



ABRAHAM LIKCOUf. 39 

by the otbcers and taen in the military and naral service. 
The impartaace for man and beast of the prescribed weekly 
rest, the sacred rights of Christian soldiers and saiiccs, a 
becoming deference to the best sentiment of Christian pec^ 
pie, and a dne regard for the Divine -srill, demand that Snn- 
•day labor in the Army and Navy be rednced to the taeasrre 
of strict necessity. The disdplrne and character of ir^e 
national forces sbcmid not snrer. nor the cai^se they defend 
be impenled by the r • 'i :' the day or the name of 

the Most High. A: - public distress 'adapting 

tl»e -spords of Washington in 1776 , men may £nd enorgh to 
do in the service of their God a: -withont 

abandoning themselv^ to vice -- ' The 

Sxst general order issued by the r ather of His Conutry after 
the Declaration of IndejK:: - ' iicated the ?^*rit ir -which 

onx Institntians irere na^' - - - shon^d ere' be de-endec. 
' 'Tiffi General hopes and uu sts that every » &cer and man 
will endeavor to live and act as tecomes a christian &:>ldier. 
defending the desrest rights and hberries o: hiS corxtry. 
In enlarging on this remartable order, one o: his biographers 
adds. 'Tike -date of this remarkable order leaves no posi- 
bdlity for insinnatircn that i* sprang from ary polrrical pnr- 
pose or intentior Mr. Ltncsin iai jcs: been re-elecied by 
an overwhelming - - psrry everywhere was 

rnnmt>hant. his owr : ^' _ ' pnlariry was mboinnded: 
there was no teniptadon to hypocrisy or oecsiL Tiiere is 
no exr>l: : : r order except that it was the of 3pr:in§ 

of sinciTi _._ '-- As nsnal. there are always some 

anojooists of free thocg^'nt ready to fnlly explain the words 
and ac3 of the rcs^ dent, l ^ ^^' 

oDcrment giv^s expresaor r ^^ 

^Lncrirv of tie Christian Sabbath that Lincnis personaly 
did not iF^i^^tjt TT It was issned ti- : ' o: 

the dergy who demanded ". ant ^w^-. .— rr- 

coin. but by some pians Sabbatarian. Very litiie is cqdwx 
indeed, of tt w' clergy besKging the president id issne ax army 



40 RELIGIOUS VIKWS OF 

order in regard to Sabbath observauce. Every author of the 
life of Lincoln tells the same story, however, that from the 
assault on Fort Sarapter until the emancipation was given 
out, he was importuned by delegation after delegation to 
issue an emancipation proclamation. It would be just as 
reasonable then, to say that Lincoln at heart was not in the 
matter but he submitted to the clamor of the people. One 
infidel writer explains away all the references to Providence, 
prayer, Sabbath observance, etc., by declaring it some of 
"Seward's nonsense." 

While Mr, Lincoln was president, he was responsible 
for every act of the government. If any order or statement 
was given out without his knowledge or against his views, 
it was his duty to disavow the whole matter. This he did 
do in regard to the Mason and Slidell affair. Also, when 
Generals Fremont and Hunter issued orders in regard to 
the liberation of slaves, he quickly corrected such proclama- 
tions. Would it seem reasonable then that Secretary 
Seward could sit in the cabinet for almost five years with 
the president, continually writing state papers without the 
knowledge or consent of the president.'' Infidels would have 
us believe that Secretaries Chase, Stanton and Seward added 
to ortook from the body of the president's papers at their 
will. If such were the case w^e will never be able to ascer- 
tain from whom emanated the Emancipation Proclamation, 
the Thanksgiving Proclamation, or the issuing of the call 
for the first seventy-five thousand troops. No, we will 
never think of Abraham Lincoln controlling his administra- 
tion with his hands tied. It would rob him of his great- 
ness. It would reduce him to an effeminate character bow- 
ing to the dictate of higher powers. 

But if it will be contended that the president acquiesced 
to the clamor of his advisers, being at heart opposed to these 
sentimental exprissioas of religion appearing in his state 
papers, the following matter ought to silence such ones for 
all time. This document was penned when the fate of the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 4I 

Republic seemed to be hanging in the balance. 1 1 is a paper 
which Mr. Lincoln wrote in September, 1862, while his mind 
was burdened with the greatest (jiuestion of his life. The fu- 
ture of the country looked dark. Not one star of hope ap- 
peared. Already thousands of lives had been offered on their 
country's altar. A large portion of his own party was dissat- 
isfied with him. Jealously was rife in the army. The counsel 
of friends was unavailing. The Confederacy was gaining 
sympathy and prestige in Kurope. Wearied with all the 
considerations of law and expediency with which he had 
been struggling for two years, he withdrew himself into 
seclusion of mind. As Moses retired, for a time, from the 
scenes of his labors and drew up into the Mount with Jeho- 
vah, leaving the cares at its base, so did Lincoln rise above 
the wrangling of men and parties and ponder the relation of 
human government to the Divine. In this frame of mind, 
absolutely separated from any earthly consideration, he 
wrote this meditation. It was written not to be seen by 
men. It was written in the awful sincerity of a perfectly 
honest soul trying to bring itself into a closer communion 
with its Master. 

"The will of God prevails. In great contests each 
party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. 
Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for 
and against the same thing at the same time. In the present 
civil war it is quite possible that God's purpose is some- 
thing different from the purpose of either party; and yet the 
human instrumentalities, working just as they do, are of 
the best adaptation to effect his purpose. I am almost 
ready to say that this is probably true. That God wills 
this contest, and wills that it shall not end yet. By his 
mere great power on the minds of the now contestants, he 
could have either saved or destroyed the I'nion without a 
human contest. Yet the contest began. And having 
begun. He could have given the final victory to either side 
any day. Yet the contest proceeds." The probability is 



42 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

that not one member of the cabinet ever beheld this medita- 
tion. It was the breathing of his heart to be unheard by- 
human ears. The song of Mirian finds a counterpart in this 
flight of human contemplation of the majesty of God. 







ABRAHVM LINCOLN. 



AI?KAHAM LINCOLN. 45 



UNCOLN AND HIS RELATION TO THK CHURCH 
AND THK CLERGY. 

"I love thy Church, O God ! 
Her walls betore thee stand, 
Dear as the apple of thine eye, 
Aud graven on thy hand. 

I>"or her my tears shall fall, 

P'or her my prayers ascend; 

To her my tears aud toils be given, 

Till toils and cares shall end. 

Beyond my highest joy 

I prize her heavenly wajs. 

Her sweet communion, solemn vows. 

Her hymns of love and praise." 

It is no wonder that in war, involving the question of 
human slavery and the dissolution of the best government 
ever organized by men there should be found such an array 
of church power on the side of Ireedom. From one end ot 
the loyal states to the other, the churches seemed to vie 
with each other in thundering forth their voices in behalf of 
humanity and patriotism. Many of thepupits of the North 
for fifty years, had championed the cause of the oppressed. 
Now, in hundreds of instances, ministers left their pulpits 
to go forth and fight ior the same cause. The most con- 
servative churches' were not far in the rear of the most 
advanced in bearing testimony iq behalf of the Union. 
From the Roman Catholic Church down to the humble 
Quaker Communion, religious bodies put themselves on 
record for liberty. A small volume might be written 
recording the resolutions of assemblies, conventions, confer- 
ences, synods, aud yearly meetings. As the war advanced 
each year the tone of these convocations became more 
decided. Only one or two fragments of these deliverances 



46 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

can lieie be given. The New School Presbyterian Church 
lifted up its voice in the following strain: "Since the day 
of your inauguratiou, the thousands of our membership 
have followed you with unceasing prayer, besieging the 
throne of grace in your behalf. When we look at the 
history of your administration hitherto, and at the wonder- 
ful way in which the people have been led under your guid- 
ance, we glorify God in you." 

The president was not unmindful of these testimonies. 
He responded to one of these bodies in the following words: 
"It has been my happiness to receive testimonies of a simi- 
lar nature from, I believe, all denominations of Christians. 
This to me is most gratifying because from the beginning I 
saw that the issues of our great struggle depended on the 
divine interposition and favor. As a pilot, I have used my 
best exertions to keep afloat our Ship of State, and shall be 
glad to resign my trust at the appointed time to another 
pilot more skillful and more successful than I may prove. 
In every case and at all hazards, the government must be 
perpetuated. Relying as I do on the Almighty Power, 
and encouraged as I am by these resolutions which you 
have just read, with the support which I receive trom Chris- 
tian men, I shall not hesitate to use all the means at my 
control to secure the termination of this rebellioi and will 
hope for success." 

To the Methodist Episcopal Church he spoke as fol- 
lows in his benediction upon them: "God bless the Metho- 
dist Church Bless all the churches. Blessed be God who 
in this our great trial giveth us the churches." 

The Quakers were placed in a delicate position by the 
war. One of the great principles of the Friends, is the op- 
position to war. Now these people hated slavery fully as 
much. When the war came and they saw that it was 
either death to slavery and the breaking up of the Union, 
or slavery forever and anarchy, thev were much perplexed 
as a body. It was with these conditions in his mind that 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 47 

the president sent the following letter to Mrs. Gurney, the 
wife of a famous ICnglish preacher of the communion of 
Friends. 

"My Esteemed Friend: I have not forgotten —probably 
never shall forget — the very impressive occasion when your- 
self and friends visited me on Sabbath forenoon, two years 
ago: nor has your kind letter, written nearly a year later, 
ever been forgotten. In all, it has been your purpose to 
strengthen my reliance on God. I am much indebted to 
the good Christian people of this country for their constant 
prayers and consolation and to no one of them more than 
to yourself. The purposes of the Almighty are perfect and 
must prevail, though we 'erring mortals may fail to accu- 
rately perceive them in advance. We hoped for a happy 
termination of this terrible war long before this; but God 
knows best and ruled otherwise. We shall yet acknowl- 
edge His wisdom and our own error therein. Meanwhile 
we must work earnestly in the best light he gives us, trust- 
ing that so working still conduces to the great ends he or- 
dains. Surely he intends some good to follow this mighty 
convulsion, which no mortal could make and no mortal 
could stay. Your people, the Friends, have had and are 
having a very great trial. On principle and faith, opposed 
to both war and oppression. They can only practically op- 
pose oppiession by war. In this hard dilemma, some have 
chosen one horn and some the other. For those appealing 
to me on conscientious grounds, I have done, and shall do 
the best I could and can, in my own conscience, under my 
oath to the law. That you believe this, I doubt not, and 
believing it, I shall still receive for my country and myself 
your earnest prayers to our Father in heaven." 

Over against this startling testimony we will insert 
some words from an infidel already quoted (Rem.sburg.> 
He sees Lincoln looking on the churches with a frown. 
"No president, probably, was ever so much annoyed by the 
clergy as Lincoln. The war produced an increased re- 



48 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

ligious fervor, and theological tramps innumerable, usually 
labeled "D. D.," visited the White House each with a 
mission to perform and a precious morsel of ad vice to offer." 
It is singular, indeed, that any man would rise up and 
make such groundless charges. Of the thousands of min- 
isters who called upon Lincoln, probably there was not one 
who ever received a snub or an insult from him. He lived 
on the best terms with all the churches. Such ministers as 
Beecher, Gray, Simpson, Sunderland, Gurley and Smith, 
ministers who have visited him repeatedly, and conversed 
with him freely on divers themes, are swift to bear testi- 
mony of his Christian sentiments and character. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 49 



HIS CARICATURES OF RELIGION. 

The churches of the land often became a butt for his 
humor and indignation. In the former case, he was giving 
his witty vein a treat without malice or feeling against any 
body or thing. Right or wrong, ministers and good people 
have indulged in these pleasantries from time immemorial 
till the present without being questioned. In the case of 
Mr. Lincoln, however, the enemies of Christianity think 
they have a good cas2 showing with what irreverence Mr, 
Lincoln viewed the institution. 

On the other hand when his wrath was turned against 
any church or man it was not to condemn Christianity but 
to expose hypocrisy. He studied the Bible for himself. 
He knew for what Christianity stood. When seeing a 
church or individual professing to be a follower of Christ 
and living or voting contrary to the ideas set forth by the 
sermon on the Mount, he was not slow to expose such in- 
consistency. 

John the Baptist, Christ, .Paul, Whitefield, Edwards, 
and a host of servants of God too numerous to mention, 
have been just as severe on hypocrites without ever being 
branded as enemies of the church. 

In what is known as "Lincoln's lost speech," the fol- 
lowing arraignment of the churches is given: "We see it 
in Christian statesmen, and Christian newspapers, and 
Christian pulpits applauding the cowardlyactof alow bully, 
who crawled upon his victim behind his back and d"ilt the 
deadly blow." In another part of the same addres: , lie ap- 
peals to the people in this fashion: "Can we as Christian 
men, and strong and free ourselves, wield the sledge or hold 
the iron which is to manacle a new and already oppressed 
race?" 



^O SELIGIOCS VIEWS OF 

Ht izz.^zzzi : "r — :-:?tersof Sj^ingfieldfor withhold- 
:-i -.iz.: .-- :: - .2: ~'ztz he stood for freedom while 
L»"jrgla£5 stood fcr :- iire. 

In his last iri . - ^ress. he cncovers pharisaical 

worship in the fol. : , 'Both read the same Bible 

and pray to the sine God, and each invokes His aid 
against tht ::-tr. It may seem strange that any men 
should dart : : i-k 2 ;nst God's assistance in wringing their 
bread frorr the siveat of c:-er — ens faces. But let ns 
judge - ; t ': t - : : - ' In whatever way we 

view :'-t ;- Itiu:: - we can only see what a 

z.z'i : z:z'-\- -r 'zii oi what Christ taught. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 5* 



CHARGE OF DEISM AND INFIDELITY IN' HIS 
CAMPAIGNS. 

Lincoln stood before the people time and again, as a 
candidate to receive their suffrage. He was in his state 
legislature for several years. He sat for one term in the 
national House of Representatives. He ran for United 
States senatorship once, and stood up twice as a candidate 
for presidency of the republic. According to his own testi- 
mony he never was beaten by the people but once. Then, 
as now, a man who off'ered himself for public office was 
severely dealt with by his antagonists. The man figured 
quite as large in a campaign as the principles for which he 
stood. Lincoln, not being a member of any church, was a 
great target at which to shoot. His opponents thought 
that in this fact they saw a vulnerable spot. Regardless of 
his opponent's veneration for religion, the charge of infidelity 
would be good political ammunition. The capital . however, 
which his enemies hoped to make oat of the matter was not 
very productive of good results. 

Lincoln generally ran ahead of his ticket. Let it not 
be forgotten, too, that the sections of Illinois which elected 
him to ottice were not unknown to the footsteps of the 
churches. That part of the state at an early period was 
settled by stalvvart Christians from the eastern and southern 
states. In his campaigns for the state legislature the charges 
of infidelity were only whispered. Several years ago when 
he ran for Congress against the celebrated Peter Cartwright, 
there were bold charges ot Deism urged against him. Cart- 
wright himself was not unfamiliar to the ways of political 
campaigns, having figured many times prior to this in such 
matters. Cartwright was oue of the most venerated and 



52 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

unique figures in the Methodist Church at that time, Method- 
ism, even at that period, numbered its people by the thou- 
sands in that state. It would seem, indeed, that a candidate, 
known as an avowed infidel, and running for office in a dis- 
trict largely peopled by Christian voters, would stand a very 
slim chance tor office. It came to pass, however, that 
Abraham Lincoln ran far ahead of his ticket in his campaign 
with Cartwright. There is only one way to account for this 
phenomenal vote; that the people who knew him the best 
did not believe the charges. The whole matter was only a 
political trick to reduce the vote for Lincoln. 

If we hearken to all that is waged against a candidate 
for office, such a one appears like a monster or a miscreant 
of the foulest type. We can never forget that he who re- 
poses in the tomb at Mt. Vernon when candidate for the 
presidency, was denounced as a dictator, mimicing the ways 
of the crowned heads of Europe, let it not be forgotten that 
the lamented and Christian president Garfield was accused 
as a receiver of bribes while in Congress. Keeping in mind 
that these things must need come we can clearly see why in 
those days of feverish excitement anything could be legiti- 
mately emplo\-ed which might cripple the opposition. 

A few years later when Lincoln measured strength with 
Douglass in the senatorial race, the old charge of infidelity 
was forgotten. Lincoln had not changed in these few years. 
but other weapons were employed which might have a more 
telling effect. Infidelity, then, need not probe into the past 
in order to draw out comfort in this line. They will find 
out that even in those days the charge of Deism and free- 
thought urged against Lincoln was indignantly denied by 
the people. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 53 



MODE ADOPTED TO INVALIDATE CHRISTIAN 
TESTIMONY. 

In almost every instance where an author has at- 
tempted to show Lincoln to have been a Christian, that 
author has, at once, received the most scathing vitupera- 
tion from some infidel quarter. Mr. Lincoln once wisely 
said, "By a course ot reasoning, Euclid proves that all 
the angles in a triangle are equal to two right angles. Now, 
it you undertake to disprove that proposition, would you 
prove it false by calling Euclid a liar? In the face of the 
above well known saying of that good man, his would-be ad- 
mirers have sought to cripple Christian testimony by call- 
ing the authors harsh names. To show the desperation of 
their case, a few instances of these abusive criticisms will 
be noted. One of the earliest and possibly one of th£ best 
biographies of Mr. Lincoln given out is that of Holland. Mr. 
Holland was in his day a journalist of no limited influence. 
His skillful pen has placed him in the household of Ameri- 
can literature. The following is the estimation put upon 
his excellent work by a follower of Paine: "Holland 
parades the subject of his work as a model of Christian 
piety. He knew that this was false, for, while he was un- 
acquainted with Lincoln, he had been appraised of his un- 
belief, had been repeatedly told of it before he wrote his 
biography. But this did not deter him from asserting the 
contrary. He knew that if he stated the facts the clergy 
would condemn his book. They needed the influence of 
Lincoln's great name to support their crumbling creed, and 
would have it at any sacrifice, particularly when its pDsses- 
sion required no greater sacrifice than truth.'" The above 
traduction needs no comment. 



54 REXIGIOrS VIEWS .^F 

H<a. Isaac Arnold also has given to the world a splen- 
did volume t^on the life and character of Mr. Lincoln. 
Hon. Robert Lincoln, son of the great emancipator, assures 
the author of this little work. that Mr. Arnold has well done 
his work is describing his father's religiotis tone. Mr. 
Arnold had a large place in his heart for President Lincoln. 
The Chicago district sent him to the national house of rep- 
resentatives repeatedly. He had almost daily interviews 
with Mr. Lincoln while he was president. An inSdel dis- 
poses of Arnold in the following style; 'They know that a 
cold reception awaits their works unless thev are able to 
clothe the character of their subjects in the popular robes of 
srr.--" • - >'r. Arnold realized this when he wrote his 
1 - ■ ' He had been most forcibly reminded 
of the rate c . : hies of his own subj ect which had al- 
ready 37 ' : ■ - -. Lamon's. Holland's by cater- 
ing to • r^ardless of truth, had been 

f r . . saccess. Lamon s work by adhering to the truth, 

- : : : pDpnlar prejudice, had been financially a failure. 

- . : to profit by these examples and intimidated by 

the threats and entreaties of those who had resolved to secure 
for Christianity the inSuence of the great emancipator's 
name. Arnold dare not give the fac'.^ regarding Lincoln's 
regions belief." This man would have -s 'relieve that 
Amc^d wrote his biography with only a mercenary motive 
regardless of truth. Lsten to what Hon. E. B. Washbume 
says <Hi this very point: "From the time that Mr. Arnold 
entered Congress, at the breaking out of the Civil War. he 
became one of the most trusted advisers of Mr. Lincoln. 
and few men outside of the Cabinet were more frequently 
ooosnlted by him in important matters No one knew bet- 
ter Mr L»T>-^?in's thoughts and intentions than Mr. Arnold. 
ir : - : jed his CDufidence to a higher degree. It 

m^: -; -_-. -i:d ihat no man was better qualified lo write 
a serious and authoritative life of Mr. Lincoln and to 
enlighten the public in respect to t'ne c'naracte- career and 
services of that illustrious man. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 55 

Dr Byron Sunderland, a noble Christian minister of 
Washington City, having given out what he heard from 
Lincoln's own lips is impeached in the following manner: 
"He can probably put more falsehood and calumny in a 
page of foolscap than any priest out of prison. ' ' 

Hon Xinian Edwards, brother-in-law of the president, 
after telling what he knew of his noble relative's views, is 
summarily brought to bay in the following manner by an 
orthodox'free thinker: '"Being a believer in Christianity 
himself he considered Lincoln's infidelity a grave defect in 
his character and was vexed to see that this controversy had 
given it such wide publicity. To assist in removing this 
stain, as he regarded it, from his kinsmans name, he allowed 
to be published over his signature a statement, which unless 
his memory was very defective and treacherous, he must 
have known was untrue. 



56 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 



HIS POWER OF GIVING COMFORT. 

'Come, ye disconsolate, wher'er ye languish; 

Come to the mercy seat, fervently kneel; 
Here bring your wounded hearts, here tell your anguish; 

Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal. 

Joy to the desolate, light of the straying, 

Hope of the penitent, fadeless and pure: 
Here speaks the Comforter, tenderly saying, 

'Earth hath no sorrow that Heaven cannot cure.' 

Here see the bread of life, see waters flowing. 

Forth from the throne of God, pure from above; 
Come to the feast of love; come, ever knowing. 

Earth has no sorrow but Heaven can remove." 

He was not the Comforter but lived to bear witness of 
the true Comforter. All around him were bleeding hearts. 
"In Rama there was a voice heard, lamentation and weep- 
ing, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children 
and would not be comforted, because they are not." A 
widow of Boston had five .sons all of whom had fallen 
for their country. On learning of the fact he hastens to 
offer his condolence in the following words: "I pray our 
Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereave- 
ments and leave only the cherished memory of the loved 
and lost, and the solemn pride which must be yours to 
have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom." 

As his towering form leaned over the wounded Sickles 
when the stoutest heart scarcely dared to hope for the hero's 
recovery, Lincoln could say, "You will get well; I am a 
prophet today." More than once he would go through the 
hospitals, shaking the hands of the sick and wounded sol- 
diers, inquiring their names, their state, and their regiments. 
He would, sometimes, pause and look into their faces a 
moment and kindly say. "God bless you." 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 57 



HIS SUFFERINGS. 

"For here in knotted cord and vein 

I trace the varying chart of years; 
I know the troubled heart, the strain, 

The weight of Atlas and the tears." 

"Again I see the patient brow, 
That palm erewhile was wont to press; 

And now 'tis furrowed deep, and now 
Made smooth with hope and tenderness." 

"A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief," was 
applied to the Savior. This could have verily been said of 
Abraham Lincoln. Even before he started for Washington, 
he felt the piercing of the thorns prepared for him. He ex- 
claims, "I see the storm coming." On his way to the 
seat of the government plots had been concocted to assassi- 
nate him. They hated him without a cause. In the midst 
of the mighty carnage of war his beloved son Willie died. 
The blow well nigh overwhelmed him. To a friend one 
day who was picturing to him the happy end of the war and 
how that his last days would be the best of all, he replied 
with pathos that language cannot describe: "I feel as 
though I shall never be glad any more." 

After the terrible repulse at Fredericksburg, he ex- 
claimed, "If there is a man out of perdition that suffers 
more than I do, I pity him:" Hon. Schuyler Colfax, in 
his funeral oration said of him. "One morning, over two 
years ago, calling upon him on business, I found him look- 
ing more than usually pale and careworn, and inquired the 
reason. He replied that with the bad news he had received 
at a late hour the previous night, which had not yet been com- 
municated to the press, he had not closed his eyes or break- 
fasted; and with an expression I shall never forget, he ex- 
claimed, 'How willingly would I exchange places today 



58 RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 

with the soldier who sleeps on the ground in the Army of 
the Potomac' " Noah Brooks gives the following glimpse 
of his affliction: "I shall never forget the picture of de- 
spair. He held a telegram in his hand, and as he closed the 
door and came toward us I mechanically noticed his face, 
usually sallow, was ashen in hue. The paper on the wall 
behind him was of that tint known as 'French Gray,' and 
even in that moment of sorrow and dread expectation I 
took in the thought that the complexion of the president's 
visage was almost exactly like that of the wall. He gave 
me the telegram and in a voice trembling with emotion said, 
'Read it, news from the army.' The dispatch was from 
Gen. Butterfield, Hooker's Chief of staff, addressed to the 
War Department, and was to the effect that the army had 
been withdrawn from the south side of the Rappahannock, 
and was then safely encamped in its former position. The 
appearanc e of the president as I read these fateful words 
with trembling voice was piteous. Never as long as I knew 
him did he seem to be so broken, so disspirited, and so 
ghost-like. Clasping his hands behind his back, he walked 
up and down the room, saying, 'My God! My God! What 
will the country say! What will the country say!' " 

One day at Fortress Monroe he said to an army officer: 
"Colonel did you ever dream of a lost friend, and feel that 
you were holding sweet communion with that friend, and 
yet have a sad consciousness that it was not a reality? Just 
so I dream of my boy Willie." Overcome with emotion he 
dropped his head on the table and sobbed aloud. It was 
just this suffering, too, that made his faith in God perfect. 
Well could he say with David, "When my heart is over- 
whelmed lead me to the rock that is higher than I." 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 59 



HIS FAVORITE LITERATURE. 

His mood ranged over a key-board of many octaves, on 
which he played at its extremes. Now he would be relish- 
ing a good, witty story which happened to come his way, 
and again he would relapse into a gloom which was ghost- 
like. While his lighter vein would find a treat in Nasby's 
letters, yet, as is well known, literature of the pathetic order 
best fed his sad nature- The mutterings of Job as he more 
than once admitted, furnished him wholesome meditation. 
The two poems which seemed to captivate him the most 
completely were Holmes' poem of "The Last Leaf," and 
"Oh! why should the spirit of mortal be proud." It is said 
he never grew tired reciting these beautiful stanzas, or 
wearied at hearing them uttered by others. The last Sun- 
day of his life, he read the following from Macbeth: Dun- 
can is in his grave; After life's fitful fever he sleeps well; 
Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison, malice 
domestic, foreign levy, nothing can touch him farther. 



6o RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF 



HIS LAST DAY. 

"He wrestled ceaselessly through four black and dread- 
ful purgatorial years, when God was cleansing the sins of 
the people as by fire. At last, the watchman beheld the 
gray dawn. The mountains began to give forth their 
forms from out the darkness, and the east came rushing 
toward us with arms full of joy for all the sorrows. Then 
it was for him to be glad exceedingly that he had sorrowed 
immeasurably." He stood in Richmond where the Confed- 
eracy recently had established its headquarters. He lived 
long enough to see their bows completely broken. His life 
was stretched out long enough to see that his Emancipation 
Proclamation, would forever be held sacred by the Ameri- 
can people. Despite the fact that he had a presentiment 
that he would not long survive the war, the last day of his 
life was a happy one. Like a boy fresh from schcxjl, he was 
just coming out of a dreadful nightmare. He was intoxi- 
cated with joy. Xo more blood to be split was ointment 
to his tender heart. He was assassinated in a theater. We 
would have ordered it otherwise. The free thought world 
has reminded the church of this fact. They insist that Mr. 
Lincoln showed his irreverance for the church by going to a 
place of amusement generally proscribed by the churches. 

Mr. Miner, an old friend and neighbor of the president, 
in a letter to the Boston Christian Leader, states the follow- 
ing: "Mrs. Lincoln informed me that the last day he lived 
was the happiest day of his life. The very last moment of 
his conscious life was spent in conversation with his wife 
about his future plans and what he wanted to do when his 
term ot oflBce expired. He said he wanted to visit the Holy 
Land and see those places hallowed by the footprints of the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 6l 

Savior. He said there was no city he so much desired to 
see as Jerusalem and with the word half spoken on his 
tongue the bullet from the pistol of the assassin entered the 
brain and the soul of the great and good president was 
carried by the ange!s to the New Jerusalem above." 

Mr. Lincoln went to the theatre that fatal night more 
to gratify others than to gratify himself. He along with 
Grant was advertised to be present. General Grant was 
called away to a neighboring city, thus the president went 
in order to not disappoint anyone. When the intelligence 
of his death reached the people, their grief could not be 
concealed. Mourners went about the street. Xo man could 
stand up and apologize for the crime and live. As the re- 
mains of the great and good man were borne across the 
country to his western home, the people lifted up their 
voices at his coming and wept. 

His face in death had a Christ-like appearance. His 
features easily recalled his words so lately uttered. "With 
malice toward none, with charity for all." His name is now 
■sweet to the ears of all people. He lifted his beloved land 
high up toward God. His wrestlings with the Almighty; 
his struggles in the garden of darkness and despair; his 
trained heart, hearkening to the voice of the Father, will 
€ver associate him with the best of the Lord's anointed. 



NOTE. 

A copy of RELIGIOUS VIEWS OF ABRAHAM will be sent to 
any address, postpaid„on receipt of 25 cents to 

THE R. M. SCRANTON PRINTING CO., 

A1.LIANCE, Ohio. 



my 29 1905 



'S S '12 , >~^<tf.*t^ 



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